After The Closet
by EmilyRo132
Summary: Times are changing for everyone in the Wizarding World. A dark wizard is rising up, defeating anyone who dares to cross his path. James Potter and Lily Evans are about to enter their final year at Hogwarts, but with secrets, lies and danger around every corner, trust is tested and friendships are torn apart forever. sequel to A meeting in the closet
1. Prologue

**AN:/Okay I realise it has been months...  
****But here it is! **

_**Prologue**_

The narrow alley way was dark, shrouded by twisting branches that prevented the night sky from shining through. A young boy, no older than 17, plundered nervously along the alley, tripping occasionally on the crooked pebble stones.  
He halted a few steps from his destination, his breaths shaky.  
This was it. His last chance to turn back…run away.  
But, wasn't that always what scared little Peter Pettigrew did?  
He was a coward, and he knew it.

Was this his only option? Perhaps.  
Last month, a group of Slytherin boys from his year had approached him, and told him, that he had…potential.  
Never in his entire life had Peter been told anything like that. He was a follower, a shadow to his popular friends. And Peter knew it.  
One, Mulciber, had told him that a meeting would be taking place during the summer. And then they had left him alone with his thoughts. Peter had eventually tried to push the thought to the back of his mind, what with the exams and his friends to be thinking about.  
Only, since Lily and Marlene and Hestia had sort of joined their group, Peter was finding it even worse. He could feel them drifting away from him, moving on with their lives. The immature pranks and jokes that had taken up their entire junior days were being forgotten in the midst of talks of the NEWTS and getting jobs and, Merlin forbid, _love. _

A girl had kissed Peter just once. And even that had been the result of a game of truth or dare, which had included Sirius begging every girl participating to give his sad friend a peck to make him feel better.  
Seeing James and Lily, who clearly had feelings for each other, made it difficult for Peter not to grow jealous of her. Lily Evans was a know-it-all, she talked to Peter like he was a baby. In his opinion, she was completely wrong for his best friend.  
Of course, Peter would never say that as he knew quite well that James would pick Lily over him any day.

Peter's mother was ill, and his father was already long gone. What he had never told his friends, was that he had little money to live on; his mum with barely a room over her head. She was dying, Peter had been told by a doctor at St Mungos.  
The Slytherins told him that if he joined, he would receive a huge income of galleons each month. A new home, perhaps even a potion that could heal his mother.  
As each day passed and more and more reasons to join Lord Voldemort appeared, Peter was finding it difficult to concentrate on anything else.

And just yesterday evening, Peter had received a letter; a letter telling him a time and a place.  
So here he was.  
With minutes to spare, and thoughts spinning around in his mind, Peter stepped closer to the door, the only one on the alley. It was painted dark red, and there was a brass doorknocker shaped like a snake.  
This was the right place.

His foot found the step and, as instructed, Peter took out a small knife.  
He settled the blade on his arm and, squeezing his eyes shut, dragged the edge across his skin.

Peter opened his eyes and stared at the blood oozing out of his arm. With bated breath, he let it drip onto the door.  
For a moment, nothing happened. And Peter felt rather foolish. Almost relieved, Peter turned to step away from the door. But some invisible force stopped him. He was stuck.  
Frantic, Peter turned back to the door, which was still firmly stuck. Was this a joke? Would he be stranded here all night with a bleeding arm and his dignity stripped?

Peter banged on the door.  
"Let me in!"  
Suddenly the door opened and Peter fell forward, tripping on the ledge.  
Peter cursed. His hands were clenching a black boot. His eyes trailed up the body until he reached the snarling face of Lucius Malfoy.  
Peter yelped and jumped up.  
"…Sorry," He stuttered out, his cheeks burning red.  
Malfoy regarded Peter with distaste.  
"I have no idea why you are here, Pettigrew."  
"I was invited!" He said boldly.  
The blond haired man rolled his eyes. "Yes, I do know that you idiot."  
He turned and headed back into the house. "Well?" He said slowly. "Come along."

Peter glanced back once at the empty street. He could see a glimmer of the moon, piercing through the darkness.  
Peter closed the door gently, blocking off the light. He followed Malfoy down the hall.

* * *

_Twitter; emilyrose_1_


	2. A fight with a gnome

**AN:/Chapter 1 is here! I'm glad you liked the prologue:D **

Lily Evans woke to the sound of a great bang coming from downstairs. She sat up, rubbing her eyes.  
"What the bloody hell was that, Marlene?" She muttered, her eyes closed.  
When her best friend didn't reply, Lily looked over at Marlene's bed.  
Which was empty.  
Lily got up out of bed and shuffled over to the other side of the room. Marlene's bed looked like it hadn't been slept in at all. The covers were flat and unruffled; something Lily knew was impossible for Marlene after living with the girl for short of seven years.

No, Lily thought, Marlene didn't sleep here. So where was she last night?  
Before Lily had time to ponder the matter further, her door burst open.  
"Oh shit!" came a voice from the door.  
Lily jumped and before she could even speak, the door slammed loudly shut again.  
Moments later, there were two knocks on her door.  
"Err…come in?" Lily said, confused.  
The door slowly opened and James Potter came into view, looking tremendously flustered.  
"Hi, hello." He said, pushing his hands through his hair, which already resembled a bird's nest.  
"Was that you, just now?" Lily said.  
James nodded. "Yeah, sorry about that. I realised, y'know, that it's not polite to just run into a girl's room without knocking…so uh, I knocked."  
Lily laughed.  
"It's okay. May I ask why such bursting in was necessary?"  
James looked over his shoulder into the hall. "You better just come and see for yourself."  
He backed out of the room.  
Lily grabbed her jacket from the floor where she had thrown it the previous night, and followed James from the room.

As they descended the stairs, Lily found herself staring at the back of James's head. Remembering her conclusion about him from the previous night, she blushed. Lily tried to repress the thought in case he could somehow read her mind and discover the certain feelings that she had for him.  
"What time is it?" Lily asked, trying to sound like she normally did.  
"About half ten…everyone's already down in the kitchen. Well, except for Peter. Haven't seen him. But he's probably just sleeping. Anyway…look at this…"  
They had arrived at the kitchen.  
And Lily found the source of the bang.

Sirius Black was wrestling a garden gnome.  
And the gnome was winning.

Lily looked over at James, raising her eyebrow. He bit his lip and shrugged.  
Hestia, Remus and Marlene were watching the scene from across the kitchen.  
"Everyone keep back!" Sirius said furiously as he struggled to hold onto the vicious gnome.  
"I've got this!"  
Sirius, quite clearly, didn't have it.  
"Shouldn't we help?" Lily whispered to James.  
"Oh trust me, I've tried. He won't let anyone do anything." James smirked. "This has been going on for about an hour."  
"How the hell did it get in?"  
James smiled grimly at the smashed window over the sink. "Little bugger's braver than the others. Broke the window and jumped in."  
"Landed in my toast!" Hestia shouted over to Lily, her voice difficult to hear over the screeches from Sirius and, well, the gnome seemed to be _giggling_.

Lily watched as the gnome grabbed onto tufts of Sirius's hair and pulled, making the boy shout.  
James sighed. "We can't use magic outside of school either. Not like we can stupefy it."  
Lily glanced around the room. There was a large saucepan hanging from the wall closest to her.  
"Merlin…I'll do it."  
She ran over, grabbed the pan from its hook and swung the utensil at the creature as hard as she could manage whilst dodging Sirius's hands.  
The gnome looked at her dumbly, before it's yellow eyes flickered shut. It fell limp onto Sirius's lap.  
"What! Lily!" Sirius bellowed. "Why did you do that?"  
"Because," she said, setting the saucepan down on the table. "I want breakfast."

Sirius flicked the gnome onto the floor and glared at her.  
Remus and the others sat down at the table.  
"I was about to knock that thing out, ten more seconds and it would have been away with the fairies." He said huffily.  
"I'm sure, Padfoot." Remus said, grinning. "Now why don't you go put it back in the garden." Sirius swore at Remus but picked up the unconscious creature with a look of disgust on his face.

Lily sat down beside Marlene.  
"Where were you last night?" She whispered, elbowing the other girl.  
Marlene jumped.  
"Huh?"  
"You didn't sleep in your bed."  
"What? I did-"  
"Don't lie to me, Mar. I know you."  
From the fridge, James called over to her.  
"Is cereal okay? I really don't know how to cook."  
Lily smiled. "Yeah, sure James."  
She turned back to Marlene. "We're gonna talk about this later."  
Marlene's eyes widened but she turned away from Lily.

For the next while, everyone chatted, eating his or her breakfast together.  
Then the door opened, and a rather dishevelled looking Peter appeared.  
"Wow, Pete!" Sirius said. "I completely forgot you were here."  
Peter laughed, but his heart wasn't in it. He looked…drained.  
"Are you alright, Peter?" Lily asked kindly.  
The smaller boy rolled his eyes at Lily. "I'm fine."  
Lily glanced at James, hearing the annoyed tone in his voice.  
"Don't talk to her like that, mate." Said James, as if on queue.

Peter looked down at the ground. "Sorry." He sat down at the one remaining chair. Lily noticed his hair was unwashed and he was wearing the same clothes he had the previous day.  
"No offence," Sirius said. "But you look like shit, Wormy."  
Lily couldn't help but agree. The bags under Peter's eyes had bags of their own.  
"Thanks, Sirius." Peter said sarcastically.

Peter's entrance had caused a silence in the kitchen.  
"I'm going to my room." Peter said, standing up. James nodded.  
"Sure…we were thinking of going into town later on. Come down then."  
Peter nodded. "O-okay." His usual stutter was back.  
He left the room, closing the door rather forcefully behind him.

"Bloody hell." Said Hestia. "What's got his wand in a knot?"  
"Time of the month, I'd guess." Sirius said, grinning at his joke. Remus rolled his eyes.


	3. An unlikely couple

**AN:/Here's the next chapter! Sorry for the wait...i've been so busy with school lately i don't have time for anything anymore.**

Later that day, everyone except for Peter, who had still shut himself in his room, were out in the garden under the sun. James, Sirius, Remus and Hestia were playing an increasingly rowdy game of Quidditch.  
Lily and Marlene were sat on the grass, watching.  
"It's a shame Alice isn't here." Marlene said.  
Lily nodded. "Yeah, but I understand why she wants to spend a few weeks with Frank, before he goes away to Auror training."  
She was making a daisy chain, carefully threading the fragile stems through the others. Lily was waiting for the right moment to mention Marlene's absence in their room the previous night, but every time a silence came up, Marlene filled it with some form of meaningless conversation.  
"I think I'd quite like to be an Auror." Said Marlene, which caught Lily's attention.  
She looked up.  
"Really?"  
Marlene clasped her hands tightly together and pursed her lips.  
"Definitely. I mean, the world isn't the same as it used to be…this time last year, well I had my heart set on healing…but now, now I want to know how to fight."  
Lily bit her lip.  
"Are you sure? Auror training is really tough, isn't it?"  
"Do you think I can't handle it?" Marlene said, her tone slightly tense.  
Lily shook her head quickly. "No, no…of course you could."

Marlene's sudden confirmation of career choice had spun her. If she was honest, Lily didn't have a clue what she wanted to do with her life. She liked Potions and Transfiguration and Defence against the Dark Arts, but she was hopeless at Charms. Healing wasn't for her; Lily hated the sight of blood. She didn't fancy Herbology or working with magical creatures…so that pretty much left her with a ministry job in some nameless department in her own little space with her own desk and a shiny plaque with her name engraved onto it, spending the rest of her days quietly writing reports or…or to become an Auror.  
Lily knew which one she would prefer, anyway. Perhaps Marlene and herself could go to Auror training together, and work along side until they were old enough to settle down and retire.  
And suddenly Lily quite liked that idea because undoubtedly James Potter would also be working in the Auror field.

Lily smiled to herself, glancing up at the sky. James and Sirius had their arms locked fiercely together, shouting in triumph. Remus and Hestia were slowly returning to the ground, looking crestfallen.  
"Listen, Mar," Lily said, a newfound sense of happiness had descended on her. She found she was no longer so annoyed at Marlene for not telling her where she had been. After all, everyone is allowed to have secrets.  
"I want you to know that I'm okay with the fact that you aren't going to tell me where you were last night. It's completely your business."  
Marlene looked somewhat shocked, but nodded her head.  
"Thanks, Lily." She looked down into her lap. "I wish I could tell you, I really do but…I just can't. I'll be back in tonight though!"  
Lily grinned.  
"Brilliant. I seem to have a problem sleeping without your ogre-esque snores in my ear."

There was a gust of wind as James flew past, still hollering about his win. Hestia and Remus were approaching them, each dragging their brooms behind them.  
"I take it you lost?" Marlene said.  
"Not just lost!" Sirius shouted, landing swiftly beside Remus. "James and I completely annihilated them!"  
Remus rolled his eyes. "No you didn't-"  
James drifted to the ground, his mouth in a wide smirk. "We said whoever got to 200 points first, would win." He gestured to Hestia. "Care to tell them how long it took us to score that?"  
Hestia rolled her eyes. "About 10 minutes, I guess."  
"And what did you and Moony here score?"  
With a certain hand gesture aimed at the smug boys, Hestia looked over at Lily and said, "30. Wow, we're so terrible. Blah blah blah. Lets not dwell on it."  
"Technically, they scored 10." Sirius said, throwing himself down on the other side of Marlene. "We just felt so sorry for them that we let them score a couple."  
Remus scoffed.  
"Rubbish!" Hestia shouted.  
"Yeah," Sirius smirked. "You really were."

"Arighty!" Lily said, wanting to avoid a conflict. "Lets change the subject, shall we?"  
Remus, James and Hestia sat down.  
"To what?" Asked James.  
"What about Peter?" Lily said, looking up to the house. "Don't you think he's acting strangely?"  
"Who caaaaares?" Sirius groaned. "I'm not gonna let him ruin this week with all of his teenage angst dung."  
"Sirius!" Said Lily feebly. "I'm sure there's something wrong. Isn't his mother ill?"  
James nodded. "I reckon so. He never tells us anything though, so how are we supposed to make him feel better?"  
Hestia rolled her eyes.  
"You guys are terrible at this. Typical boys. Peter…well there is obviously something not right with him. And didn't anyone notice that he was wearing the same clothes as yesterday? I bet he wasn't even here last night."

Lily looked over at Marlene, raising her eyebrow.  
Marlene was looking down at the ground, her cheeks tinged red. There was only one way to see this.  
Both Marlene and Peter weren't in bed last night. It could hardly be a coincidence. And why was Marlene blushing?  
It all added up…and Lily couldn't quite believe the answer.  
"Oh my merlin…" She muttered.  
"What, Lily?" Remus said.  
Lily blinked twice, shaking her head. "Uh…nothing."  
Needless to say, she didn't pay much attention her friends for the next while.  
Marlene and…and Peter…together?  
It was just so, so wrong.  
And that's why Marlene couldn't tell her! Because her friend knew just how Lily would react.

"Hold on," James said. "Was everyone else in their rooms last night?"  
Lily said nothing about Marlene, who was still looking intently at the ground.  
She shivered slightly, her mind making up rather disturbing images and Lily had to look away from Marlene.  
"I sure was." Sirius said animatedly. "Nothing to do…no one to see…you really don't want to know the details." He winked, and Lily groaned.

"It is strange that Peter was missing." Hestia said.  
"Maybe…" Sirius said, grinning. "Maybe he was sneaking out for a lust-filled night of pure pleasure with his secret loooover."  
Lily's eyes widened again and she shook her head. The mere thought of it was enough to make her feel nauseous.  
"Don't be ridiculous, Padfoot." James said, laughing. "Peter can barely talk in front of these three, never mind some random girl."

The conversation continued for some time, though Lily was unable to get the image of Peter and Marlene out of her head.  
When they were hungry, the group stood up and began to walk back to the house.  
Marlene walked beside Lily, whilst talking to Sirius. Lily kept glancing over and then looking quickly back in front of her.  
"Lily!" Marlene said as she looked over again.  
"What?"  
"Why are you looking at me like that?"  
"Like what?"  
"Like…like that! Like I've done something dirty."  
Lily looked away, and bit her lip.  
"Good choice of words." She mumbled.  
"Ha?"  
"Nothing, nothing at all!"


	4. Paranoia

**AN:/ _((i'm sorry this has taken so long omg)) chapter three is here, finally.._**

Lily yawned and shut her eyes for a moment. She and Hestia were sprawled across Lily's bed, reading the new issue of _Witch Weekly_, which a rather pampered owl had delivered to Hestia earlier in the evening.

"I can't believe you're subscribed to this dung." Lily scoffed, scanning the page her friend was reading which listed all of the ingredients to make a 'lip softening' potion.  
Hestia pointed to the article. "This is useful!"  
"Bloody hell." Said Lily, laughing. "Who needs a potion that makes your lips softer?"  
"Well…" Hestia argued. "Quidditch and all, I get rather chapped lips."  
"So you're going to make this potion." Lily said, smirking.  
"No!"  
"Why ever not?" Lily teased. "Don't you want your lips to, taste like sugar and strawberries?" She said, reading the tagline of the article.  
Hestia glared at Lily and turned the page.  
"Oh, snogging techniques!" Lily grinned. "This is _so_ intellectual, Hest."  
"Useful." Hestia repeated.  
"How?"  
"Merlin, Lily. Well, you don't want to be known for being awful at kissing, do you?"

Lily ran a hand through her hair, suddenly feeling anxious.  
"Of course not! I'm not awful at snogging!"  
Hestia snickered. "You don't know that, you can't exactly snog yourself."  
Lily's eyes widened.  
Was she awful at snogging?  
"Now you're making me all paranoid!"  
Her friend laughed.  
"Why're you laughing? You could be awful just as much as I am!"  
Hestia shook her head, grinning. "I've kissed more boys than you've had birthdays. I'm pretty sure I'm not awful."  
Lily shook her head.  
"But how do I-"  
"Who's the last boy you kissed?" Hestia interrupted.  
Lily groaned.  
"Well…James, I guess."  
Hestia clapped her hands together. "Brilliant! Lets ask him then, shall we?"  
Lily closed the magazine and slapped her friend with it.  
"You wouldn't dare."  
Hestia stood up, grinning. "But Lily, don't you want to know if you're awful or not?" She said in a mocking tone.  
"Not that much!" Lily said, grabbing Hestia's arm.

"It's not a big deal; you guys are mates now! It'll be a laugh." Hestia walked to the door and Lily clung to her arm.  
"We're not leaving this room."  
"Yes we are!"

Lily tried her best to hold Hestia back but, alas, the girl was a lot stronger that her.  
"James?" Hestia shouted, leaping downstairs, dragging Lily along with her.  
"Yeah?" Shouted James, from what sounded like the kitchen.  
"I have to ask you-"  
"James!" Lily interrupted, shouting louder. "Don't listen to a word she says!"  
Hestia laughed.  
Lily could hear footsteps approaching from down the hall and sure enough, James appeared, a bemused grin on his face. Lily became aware of the fact that she was trailing behind Hestia, her face red and her hair tangled.  
"Yes?"  
"Lily here was wondering-"  
Lily slapped her hand over Hestia's mouth and the girl was cut off.  
"Shut up, Hestia!" Lily said, laughing slightly at the whole situation.  
"Wondering what?" James said, smirking.  
Lily yelped and took her hand back as she felt something wet on her hand.  
"Did you really just-" Lily said, looking from her glistening hand to Hestia. "You just licked me."  
Hestia nodded, looking proud of herself.

Through all of this James was staring, a look of utter confusion on his face.  
"You are two odd birds." He said, mostly to himself. Lily was still in shock about the wet feeling on her hand.  
She quickly wiped the saliva on the back of Hestia's jumper.  
"You're a bloody mental case." Lily muttered.  
"Yes, anyway, James!"  
James raised an eyebrow.  
"You see, Lily and I were just reading _Witch Weekly_, as us girls do-"  
"Rubbish." Lily interjected.  
Hestia continued. "And there was a very interesting page on snogging techniques."  
Hestia obviously felt the need to pause here, for dramatic effect or something.  
"Er, okay?" James said.  
"Long story short, poor Lily over here doesn't know whether she is any good at the old snogging business."  
Lily choked.  
"Hestia, I swear to merlin I will-"  
"And you came to me?" James asked, looking much more sure of himself now.  
"I didn't come to anyone." Lily said briskly. "I was brutally forced."  
Hestia rolled her eyes.  
"C'mon now James…we all know your and Lily's history." She said with a quirk of her eyebrow.  
"I'm going to murder you." Lily said, her face burning red.  
"Quick little question," Hestia continued. "On a scale of one to ten, how dry were Lily's lips?"  
"Oh my god." Lily said.  
"And," Hestia finished, with an unbelievably straight face, "Do you see the advantages of a lip softening potion, which makes the lips taste like sugar and strawberries?"  
"You're a dead woman." Lily said, glaring at Hestia.  
Hestia patted her on the head. "This is what best friends are for, Lily dear."  
Not able to stand the situation any longer, Lily stormed out. Which would of looked terribly dramatic had she not tripped over the stupid shoe rack beside the door.

Lily headed back out to where they had all been sitting earlier in the day. The sky was a sort of purple colour, the sun having faded all together.  
She wasn't very annoyed at Hestia, not really. But the idea of James knowing she was awful at snogging made her stomach twist.  
She tried to remember what the last kiss she and James had shared had been like.  
James was brilliant at it, obviously. But how could Lily tell if she was any good? And how could she ever dare to kiss anyone ever again, should she never know the truth of her natural snogging abilities?

An idea popped into her mind. With a careful glance behind her to check no one was watching her, Lily looked at the palm of her hand. She'd heard that kissing it felt like kissing an actual person.  
Checking once more, Lily raised her hand to her mouth and kissed it.  
It felt weird. Really weird.

"Lily?"  
"Shit!"  
Lily jumped up, looking over her shoulder only to see James ruddy Potter standing behind her.  
"Were you…sucking your hand?"  
"Um."  
"You were, weren't you."  
"No!"  
James grinned. "So, what were you doing then?"  
Lily opened and closed her mouth twice.  
"You were sucking your hand."  
Shamefully, she nodded.  
"Care to tell me why?"  
"I was, um."  
"A ha?"  
"I was…you know, just,"  
Lily wanted to melt into the ground. James Potter had witnessed her kissing her hand!  
_Oh god oh god oh god._  
"You were checking to see if you were a good kisser."  
Lily looked over, nodded once more.  
James burst out laughing.

"Don't laugh at me!"  
He shook his head, spluttering.  
"I'm such a sad excuse for a girl." Lily said.  
He shrugged his shoulders.  
"Hey!" Lily shouted, hitting him on the shoulder. "This is where you say, _'Oh, Lil, you're the best snogger in the country, you should enter the snogging olympics!_'"  
James started to laugh even harder.  
"Bloody idiot." Lily grumbled.  
"You're a strange one, Lily Evans." James said, after he'd regained his composure.  
"Oh, go away, will you?" Lily said though she was smiling.  
James grinned and backed away a step.  
"Alright then, see you at dinner."  
He paused.  
"Lily? For the record, you're the best snog I've had."

And with a wink and a flick of his annoying hair, James left Lily standing by herself, quite unable to move her feet and with a strange tingling sensation rising in her tummy.


	5. Promises in the night

Dinner consisted of pizza, delivered from the village near James' house and copious amounts of Butterbeer to help it go down.  
There was silence as everyone tucked in, but Lily didn't have much of an appetite. There was too much to think about.  
Firstly, the boy sitting right next to her. Lily could feel his shoulder touching hers as they crowded in at the small table. Her heart was racing and that annoyed her. He was just a boy for Merlin's sake!  
Then next, there was the whole predicament with Marlene and Peter. Lily shivered. It just couldn't possibly be true.  
There wasn't exactly anything wrong with Peter…Lily just always saw Marlene with someone more like her. Someone smart and a little devious and just a bit vain but in a funny way…and, well, who did that sound exactly like?  
Lily's eyes drifted left of Marlene, to Sirius.  
Now that she saw it, both Marlene and Sirius had a hand under the table…  
And Peter was sitting at the end of the table, picking at a solitary slice of food. Could she have got this wrong?

Lily looked down at her lap and tried to sort of lean so she could see under the table.  
She couldn't see anything except James' lap, which, truthfully, momentarily distracted her.  
_He really was wearing really nice trousers...  
_Lily shook herself and tried to lower her head further without getting the attention of the others.  
She looked up and found James and Hestia staring at her like she was a mad woman. Lily raised her eyebrows and turned back to the underside of the table. Suddenly it came into view, Sirius's hand placed on Marlene's lap, her hand drawing circles inside his…  
Lily jolted her head back up and forgot to move backwards and her head hit the table.  
"Bloody shit!" She exclaimed, though whether for the pain or for what she had just witnessed, Lily didn't know.  
"Are you alright?" James questioned, his eyes slightly amused.  
Lily couldn't take her eyes away from Marlene, she noted how _both _of her hands were now locked together in a tight grip over her plate.  
"Yeah…yeah I'm fine. Fine."

Silence once more.  
"Er, Lil?" James said after a moment. "Shall I even ask?"  
Lily rolled her eyes and shoved some pizza into her mouth. "Better not." She mumbled.

Dinner passed and the sky darkened to black and soon it was time for bed.  
Lily and James were the only pair still up, both utterly unable to sleep.  
She was lying on the sofa and James had his head resting on her leg. He was reading a book about Quidditch history.  
Lily wasn't doing anything.  
She supposed she was happy for Marlene. Her and Sirius had just as much of a rocky ride as her and James throughout their years at Hogwarts.  
They had gone from enemies to friends to more than friends to enemies to…a couple?  
The only thing that annoyed her was that Marlene obviously had failed to mention her relationship status to her, or Hestia or Alice for that matter. She wondered how long it had been going on.

Lily had decided that she wouldn't tell anyone, or mention it to Marlene. As irritating as it was, it really wasn't her business after all.  
She tried to push Sirius and Marlene out of her mind. But the second she did that all of her thoughts simply moved onto the topic of James Potter.  
And that was risky seeing as his head was touching her leg right at that very moment.  
"Lily?"  
Her heart leaped, pathetically.  
"Yeah, James?"  
"Do you feel like things aren't like they used to be?"  
This surprised her. She'd been expecting a naff joke, in effort to make her laugh like he usually did.  
"What do you mean?"  
He shrugged, his face turned away from her.  
"I dunno, really. The marauders, the pranks, all of the laughs…it's not really, there anymore. I've only just noticed."  
"It's called growing up."  
"Maybe I don't want to grow up."  
"Been reading Peter Pan, eh?"  
"I know that one! The boy who doesn't want to grow up…and some awful pirate who only has one leg-"  
"One arm." She corrected, laughing slightly. "But yeah, basically."  
"I think I shall stay young and beautiful forever and ever."  
Lily snorted.

A moment passed.  
"Lily?" James repeated, more quiet this time.  
"James." Replied Lily.  
"Promise me we'll be like this when school starts again. Promise it won't ever go back to the old ways."  
"Wow," She said, shocked at his statement. "You'll make me cry, James Potter." Lily said with a smile and a laugh.  
"Oh, shut up." He said, looking up at her, grinning.  
"You're being _so_ deep right now." Lily raised an eyebrow.  
"Isn't this what sitting up at three in the morning is for?" He smiled his crooked smile.  
Lily shrugged.  
"What's on your mind, Miss Evans?" James asked.  
"A lot."  
"Hmm, me too."

"I can't believe we're almost done with Hogwarts." Lily said, for it was the first time she actually realised that they'd be out in the big bad world this time next year- and big and bad it was. The image of Voldemort entered her mind, as it so often did these days.  
"I know. it's strange. Feels like just yesterday I burst into your compartment in first year and you shouted the head off me."  
"You told me my hair looked like it was on fire!" Lily laughed.  
"Fire can be pretty." James said absentmindedly.  
Lily cleared her throat.

"How are you spending the rest of your summer?" She asked, trying to change onto a lighter subject.  
James shrugged. "Dunno, really. Remus is off to France, and with the way Peter's been acting…well I think it'll just be Sirius and I. And the grandparents of course."  
Lily nodded.  
"Tuney is going to get engaged. To that walrus." She said sadly.  
James laughed. "He can't be that bad, Lil's."  
"Drills are his favourite things in the world."  
"What's a bloody drill?"  
"Honestly James, didn't you ever pay attention in Muggle Studies?"  
He shook his head.  
"You know me, never one to listen."  
Lily rolled her eyes.

The talking continued for some time until suddenly the sun was beginning to lighten the night sky.  
"I better get to bed, then." Lily said, yawning.  
They stood up and James turned the lamps off. The pair walked side by side until they reached Lily's room.  
"G'night, James."  
She went to open the door.  
"Wait, Lily."  
"Yes?"  
"You never answered." He whispered. "Do you promise?"  
Lily laughed quietly. "Of course I promise, you arse. Now get to bed!"  
James ruffled his hair and then quickly kissed her on the cheek.  
It was fair to say Lily almost fell over.  
"G'night, Lil's."


End file.
